The present invention relates to electronic monitoring devices, and particularly to such devices to be attached to a person for monitoring the movements or other activities of the person. The invention also relates to an electronic monitoring system including such devices.
As pointed out in U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,474, incorporated herein by reference and assigned to the same assignee as the present application, the increasing overcrowding of jails and houses of detention has increased the popularity to sentence certain types of offenders, particularly non-violent ones, to confinement within a pre-designated location, such as the offender's place of residence, the residence of a responsible relative, or the location of certain rehabilitating institutions. For this purpose, a number of electronic monitoring devices have been developed to be attached to a person for monitoring the movements or other activities of the person. Such electronic monitoring devices typically include a tamper sensor for sensing tampering with the device or removal of the device from the person to whom the device was attached, and for producing a corresponding tamper signal which is processed by a data processor and which is fed, with an identification signal identifying the respective device, to a transmitter for transmission to an external receiver. The external receiver may be a stationary one or a mobile one. Frequently, the receiver is a local one located in the immediate area of the confinement and transmits its information to a central station which monitors the activities of many persons having electronic monitoring devices attached to them.
The above-cited U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,474 cites a large number of prior patents, which are also hereby incorporated by reference, relating to electronic monitoring devices and electronic monitoring systems of the foregoing type.
Such electronic monitoring devices are quite expensive, and it would therefore be desirable to construct them for reuse. However, different subjects may require different monitoring programs, e.g., regarding the sampling intervals, the data transmission intervals, the monitored time periods, the locations barred or permitted to the subject, etc. One system now in use programs each monitoring device according to a specific program, and uses the monitoring device only on subjects to be monitored according to the respective program.